President Barack Obama and his $1 billion re-election team have hit panic mode as the Democrat Party-leaning newspaper, the Des Moines Register, based in Iowa, gave a surprise endorsement to GOP nominee for president, Mitt Romney.

Obama operatives are accusing the number one newspaper in Iowa of going insane.

The Washington Post reports that, ‘top Obama adviser Stephanie Cutter said Sunday that the Des Moines Register’s endorsement of Mitt Romney ‘didn’t seem to be based at all in reality.’”

Cutter said, “it was a little surprising to read that editorial, because it didn’t seem to be based at all in reality – not just in the president’s record, but in Mitt Romney’s record. It said that he’d reach across the aisle, which he’d do the exact opposite. It’s the exact opposite of what he did in Massachusetts.”

According to the Washington Post, “the paper announced its endorsement late Saturday. It backed President Obama in 2008 and is the biggest newspaper in a major swing state, Iowa.”

The Des Moines Register wrote, “Barack Obama rocketed to the presidency from relative obscurity with a theme of hope and change. A different reality has marked his presidency. His record on the economy the past four years does not suggest he would lead in the direction the nation must go in the next four years.”

I'm not sure 'shock' that a major news organization so blatantly would try and sell the nation down the road is quite the same thing as 'panic'.

...written by Jonathan Green , October 29, 2012

White privilege is the bundle of unearned advantages that come with being categorized as "white" in American society. Those of us who study race and politics often have a hard time convincing white people--and some others overly identified with Whiteness--of how this dynamic impacts our society. On Tuesday, Mitt Romney was embarrassed by Barack Obama in a debate about foreign policy. There, Romney was a child trying to engage in a fist fight against a grown man, and subsequently had his behind, almost quite literally, handed to him. Obama thrashed Mitt Romney in the prior debate as well. Thus, a puzzle and conundrum: Mitt Romney has gained support among white voters after both horrible performances . How do we explain this trend?

President Obama has the double burden of being African-American and an incumbent . His record in office is colored by his race--and what the white public's perception of Obama's blackness means for how they assess his performance and accomplishments. Barack Obama is hamstrung by a double standard where he is held to a far higher bar for success than a white president. For that reason, and some very significant others too, his reelection campaign is now very much imperiled. Let me be clear: Barack Obama did poorly in the first debate against Mitt Romney. However, Obama's sub par performance was better than either of Romney's performances in the last two contests. But, Romney is gaining in the polls with voters who somehow see him as "qualified" enough to be President after losing two debates in a row against the president.

The empirical evidence has long suggested that presidential debates are unimportant for voters' decisions on election day. We have also never had a black president running for a second term. I would suggest that this upsets all of our existing models and explanations. Obama is playing a game that folks who look like him are not supposed to be involved in. Black Americans have been defined for centuries as "anti-citizens," and had to be specifically written back into the Constitution in order to correct what was a gross birth defect at the heart of "the greatest democracy" in the world. Obama's rise to the presidency is an anomaly in the the American political tradition. Consequently, all rules are now off and need to be rewritten as we try to conceptualize Barack Obama's run for reelection within the long arch of race and politics in American history.

The counter-factual is very telling. Consider the following scenario for a moment. If Obama had lost the final two debates by the same degree as Romney, the polls would be even more overwhelmingly in favor of the challenger (at this point, Obama would be calling the moving trucks; Romney would be measuring the curtains). In all, the outsized advantage enjoyed by Romney is more than a twist on the advantage held by a candidate without a record, who is running a post-truth campaign where lying is the norm, and against an incumbent who is in office during hard economic times. Historically, white privilege has mean

...written by Jackie Liston , October 30, 2012

Im sorry....did you reference the fact that Obama is black? Seriously? We are in the 21st century people! BLACK or WHITE...who cares! It has NOTHING and I mean NOTHING to do with his race. His RECORD...what he has Accomplished with the economy, with jobs, with foreign policy.

...written by Just Sayin , October 30, 2012

So which side is trying to make race an issue? Check out who Mr. Green works for.

...written by Out with Obama , October 30, 2012

Jonathan Green sounds insane...and I only read half of the 1st paragraph. Are we still talking about race in this country?? Oh pu-leeeaassseeee